Culp Drops Election Fraud Lawsuit After Sanctions Threat

WASHINGTON — It appears that Loren Culp's attempt to overturn Washington's gubernatorial race is over for now: He and his attorney, Stephen Pidgeon, have withdrawn their lawsuit against Secretary of State Kim Wyman.

Republican candidate Culp lost the gubernatorial race in November against incumbent Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee by roughly 545,000 votes. But instead of conceding, Culp took a page out of fellow Republican President Donald Trump's playbook: He immediately pivoted to claims that election fraud cost him the race — despite a lack of evidence supporting the allegation.

Culp and Pidgeon filed a lawsuit in December against Secretary of State Kim Wyman, claiming that some 800,000 votes were illegally cast in the November general election. The lawsuit demanded an audit of voting machines, paper ballots and voting results in King, Clark, Thurston, Pierce, Kitsap and Skagit counties. Notably, all six counties named in the suit heavily favored Inslee over Culp.

Wyman repeatedly dismissed Culp's claims of widespread fraud, saying that he had yet to provide any actual evidence to back up his theories. "Gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp, and now attorney Stephen Pidgeon, have made sweeping claims about alleged voter fraud committed in the 2020 General Election without providing any substantive evidence," Wyman said in a statement issued shortly before Culp's suit was filed.

Now, after roughly a month of silence, the suit is officially dead. Culp and Pidgeon confirmed in a video conference Friday that they withdrew the suit and will not refile it. "Unfortunately the technicalities of this case will not allow us to continue in the state's Superior Court," Pidgeon said.

As Jim Brunner at The Seattle Times first reported, the lawsuit's withdrawal came just before an important deadline. The Washington Attorney General's office previously announced that not only would it file to dismiss the case, it would also hit Pidgeon with legal sanctions unless the pair rescinded their suit by noon Friday.

"Like President Trump, Culp used a baseless lawsuit to undermine confidence in our elections," wrote Attorney General Bob Ferguson. "This past week shows how dangerous these false and irresponsible attacks on our democracy can be. After we threatened sanctions, Culp backed down and withdrew his lawsuit."

Culp's withdrawal was made "with prejudice," which means Culp and Pidgeon cannot try to file the same lawsuit again, the Times reported.

Washington State Democrats also filed a bar complaint against Pidgeon, calling his claims "frivolous" and accusing him of spreading "disinformation that has resulted in threats of violence against election officials."

Both Pidgeon and Culp said they still have serious concerns about the security of Washington's election system. "We're going to leave this battleground now and instead bring our case of election reform to you and the court of public opinion," Pidgeon said.

"I'm not happy about this, and I know you aren't either, but it doesn't mean that the war is over," Culp said. "It just means we are not going to engage in this particular battle."